Committee Library

Public hearing transcripts are published after each committee hearing. They include opening statements by senators and witnesses, documents submitted for the record, questions submitted by senators, and the witnesses’ responses to these questions.

Committee reports are usually prepared when the committee passes a bill and sends it to the full Senate for consideration. These reports describe the purposes and provisions of the proposed bill. After bills are passed by both the House and the Senate, they go to a Conference Committee to resolve the differences between the two bills. Conference reports and joint explanatory statements are what results from those final negotiations.

Compilations contain the current text of federal agricultural laws. Compilations begin with the original text of federal agricultural laws and are updated to incorporate all the changes to the original laws since they were first enacted. Compilations allow users to view one document to determine the current text of a federal agricultural law, rather than the original law and all of the amendments to the law. The first page of each compilation indicates the Public Law and date through which the compilation has been updated.

Although substantial efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy and currency of the compilations, the providers of the compilations are not responsible for any errors in the compilations and will update these texts as time permits. The compilations are provided as a service to the public and do not represent official versions of any federal statute.